It's those negative waves, man.
Always with the negative waves, Moriarty, always with the negative waves!
(Donald Sutherland in Kelly's Hero's)
And the people who hate smoke in their face the most seem to give of more of those "negative waves, man" and the smoke just is drawn to them!
But I'm with Wayland. You're just not worshipping/sacrificing to the right gods! Try dancing nekkid round a bonfire down in the glenn under the full moon! After a few minutes (and a couple seared spots on your nether regions) you won't be worrying about the smoke anymore!
We burn a lot of dead white elm around here - because so much is available do to Dutch Elm Disease killing the trees by the time they get 6 or 8 inches in diameter. Even if it is thoroughly dry, it still smokes a lot - with pretty irritating smoke for the eyes. Keeping lots of "flame" in your fire helps.
The best wood I've found to cut down on the smoke is dry Maple! It burns hot with little smoke.
So the best advice is to always camp with somebody else who seems to be a better version of that smoke-magnet. And be sure to thank them appropriately!
Mikey - that ... cough cough ... grumpy ol' ... cough cough ... German blacksmith ... cough cough .... out in the Hinterlands ... cough cough